Land use - State and impacts (Lithuania)

The Lithuanian landscape has undergone a dynamic process of evolution since ancient times, experiencing many progressions and abrupt changes. A wide variety of social, economic and political factors have determined changes in the structure of land use and the emergence of different types of landscape. At present, Lithuania has the following types of the landscape: (1) natural landscape areas that have survived and enlarged (mostly woodlands and wetlands); (2) large areas of reclaimed rural land which have lost their ethno-cultural identity; (3) portions of rural areas with surviving features that developed before 1940; (4) parts of cities with modern, standardised construction, new cities and villages; (5) historical cities, towns and villages and their surviving parts; (6) newly-developed, large engineering and infrastructure facilities; (7) agrarian landscape with small land parcels and individual farms and (8) urban landscape of suburban residential areas in large cities.

In 2000–2006, 99 700 hectares (ha) of the land cover, or 1.5 % of Lithuania’s territory were subjected to change. The greatest changes occurred in forests and other natural areas, affecting 78 600 ha and accounting for 78.8 % of all changes. Most of the changes that took place in the forest sector were in relation to timber harvesting (50 800 ha of woodland were cleared). A large part (18.1 %) of all changes occurred in farming areas, mostly affecting non-irrigated farmed land (6 900 ha) and pastures (8 700 ha). Part of the farmed land was converted to pasture (2 800 ha) and scrubland (2 100 ha). In contrast, changes in artificial cover were not as intensive. During the period 2000–2006, 1 900 ha of land were developed and almost 2 000 ha were converted into new developments. The total area of natural, semi-natural and urban territories underwent comparatively few changes during the reference period (Fig. 1).

Different morphological types of landscape can be distinguished according to the relative nature of the landscape: (1) the natural landscape; (2) the rural landscape, and (3) the urban landscape.

At present, rural landscape types are predominant, covering around 75 % of Lithuanian territory. Larger areas of the natural landscape have survived in the east and south as well as in the ancient delta zones to the west, but their total area does not exceed 15 % of the territory of Lithuania (Fig. 2).

The remaining part of the country features urban or urbanised landscape types that have experienced fairly rapid development in recent years. Lithuania currently has 11 cities with areas exceeding 1 000 ha. The five largest cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys) have actively contributed to the formation of urban conurbations where intensive new urban development processes are currently underway. The total area of urbanised land has been growing steadily since Lithuanian independence in 1990 and now amounts to approximately 10 % of the country’s territory. The highest level of urbanisation is observed around the largest cities (Vilnius, Klaipėda and Kaunas), with fairly intensive urban growth and agglomeration processes. The areas around less significant regional centres have urban landscape areas that are three to five times smaller.

Between 1990 and 2007, the territory of protected areas increased almost three-fold (Fig. 3). Most of the protected areas (including five strict nature reserves, about 300 reserves, five national parks, 30 regional parks, a biosphere reserve, 26 biosphere sites and three restoration plots) are situated in high-value landscape locations. Consequently, appropriate regulations have been drawn up for the protection of the landscape at these locations.

An area of sensitive geopotential has been identified in northern Lithuania where the dissolution of gypsum leads to the formation of subterranean caverns which collapse, forming a karstic landscape (Fig. 4).

The most problematic areas of Lithuanian territory in terms of landscape management include: (1) the coastal strip; (2) picturesque shores of water bodies in ecologically important, protected areas that are fragmented as a result of small, privately-managed land parcels; (3) privately-owned forests subjected to intensive timber harvesting; (4) rapidly-growing new individual housing areas in large cities in an environment with no appropriate engineering facilities, and (5) cultural heritage sites in the urban landscape.